Why are they looking at widebodies when they are merging with AI in July? Won't they be clashing with AI's flights, in which case it would probably make more sense to wait until they have merged and then they can have synergies in route planning?

Bombardier really needs to break into the Indian market. Indian carriers only have 7 CRJ-200 operating. I would presume they (Bombardier) would be busy trying to push the Dash 8Q-400 and the CRJ-700/705/900 for the 70 seat category as well. I guess it would be an uphill struggle against the firmly entrenched carriers operating the ATR 42/72 in India such as Air Deccan, Alliance Air, Jet Airways and Kingfisher.

Any chance we will see the Q400 or more of the CRJ family in India soon??

Quoting Kaitak (Reply 1):Why are they looking at widebodies when they are merging with AI in July?

looking at Indian Airlines tender page, there are three links, Indian Airlines tenders (yes Indian Airlines and not Indian), Alliance Airlines tenders and Indian Airlines-Air India tenders. All the Indian Airlines and Alliance Airlines tenders are from May 12 or before and the combined Indian Airlines-Air India tenders are from May 14. Guess the management at IC are getting their last shots in before they are led away to a shot gun wedding with AI.